Cyber Monday online sales increased 12.1% to $3.45B, according to an updated tally from Adobe.

Mobile spending was up 34% Y/Y to $1.07B to account for 31% of sales.

Conversion rates were highest for desktops at 6.3%, while smartphones (2.8%) and tablets (5.1%) were still above holiday averages.

Holiday shopping season sales through November 28 are up 7.6% to $39.97B.

The S&P Retail ETF (NYSEARCA:XRT) is up 1.81% over the last week to outpace broad market averages. The list of outperformers over the last week -- which factors in the pre-Thanksgiving buzz, Black Friday reports, and Cyber Monday numbers -- includes Target (NYSE:TGT), Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT), Hasbro (NASDAQ:HAS), Mattel (NASDAQ:MAT), Staples (NASDAQ:SPLS), DSW (NYSE:DSW), Barnes & Noble (NYSE:BKS), Dollar Tree (NASDAQ:DLTR), Dollar General (NYSE:DG), Burlington Stores (NYSE:BURL), The Children's Place (NASDAQ:PLCE) and Best Buy (NYSE:BBY). An interesting sidenote is that all the retail names listed above topped the return of Amazon for the 5-session period.

Barnes & Noble (NYSE:BKS) reports same-store sales fell 3.2% in FQ2, a mark that was better than the 5% drop expected by analysts.

Retail sales were down 3.5% Y/Y to $830.72M and Nook sales fell 19% to $35.04M. Store traffic fell off from a year ago.

"While we are pleased to have improved our performance due to expense reductions, we did experience sluggish sales, which we believe are directly related to the election cycle," notes CEO Len Riggio. The election excuse hasn't held up consistently across retail based on sector-wide reports.

The company expects same-store sales to be down in the mid single digits for FY17. Full-year EBITDA of $240M to $280M is expected for the retail business and a loss of $30M to $40M in seen for Nook.

Barnes & Noble (BKS-3.6%) founder Leonard Riggio didn't hold back during today's earnings call, saying the retail climate is the worst he has seen in 50 years. Riggio was handling the Q&A with analysts after CEO David Boire was exited last month.

The B&N Chairman wasn't the first to blame his company's soft patch of sales on the divisive election.

"The current trend can be traced precisely to the current election cycle, which is unprecedented in terms of the fear, anger and frustration being experienced by the public," stated Riggio.

"The preoccupation with this election is keeping them in home, glued to their TVs and at their desktops," he added.